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en-usTechdirt. Stories about "htc"https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/td-88x31.gifhttps://www.techdirt.com/Tue, 29 Oct 2013 20:14:19 PDTTaiwan Fines Samsung For AstroturfingTimothy Geignerhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131024/10311625002/taiwan-fines-samsung-astroturfing.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131024/10311625002/taiwan-fines-samsung-astroturfing.shtml
At some point companies and organizations are going to have to learn that astroturfing is going to accomplish absolutely nothing positive and almost certainly a whole lot of negative. The practice of faking support through BS internet comments is every bit as petty and stupid as it sounds, resulting in these folks either looking really silly or downright hypocritical. That said, it's one thing to astroturf for what typically amounts to a crappy cause, but it's quite another level of dumb when you do it to try to influence consumer behavior purely as a business practice.

For instance, take Samsung, which has been the king of the mobile phone market for the past few years. It's now been fined by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) for splashing fake comments all over the internet demeaning HTC phones while favoring its own.

In a notice on its website, the consumer protection body said that Samsung had organized an Internet campaign in violation of fair trade rules to praise Samsung smartphones while slamming those of HTC. The FTC set Samsung's fine at New Taiwan dollars 10 million ($340,000). It also leveled smaller fines on two Taiwanese trading companies it said were responsible for mounting the Internet campaign.

It should be noted that this isn't the first time Samsung has been fined for misleading behavior, having faced FTC sanctions mere months ago over the way they mislead consumers about some of the camera functions on their phones. Now, $340k may not seem like that big a deal, and it probably isn't, but you and any potential Samsung partners should be looking at this as a symptom, not the disease.

Even as Samsung has been leading the market lately, this sends a clear message to anyone paying attention that Samsung doesn't think it can actually compete fairly in the marketplace. The company apparently believes they're best bet is to generate positive outlook on their phones by faking grassroot support as opposed to actually earning it. That's a problem in and of itself, but add to it a drop in confidence and favorability now that the astroturfing campaign has been exposed and the corporate-meltdown pump has been primed. Samsung may want to remind itself of the fate of Nokia -- another company that was once at the top of the heap in mobile phones, before it became complacent on innovation and learned how quickly a market can move in a different direction.

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]]>why-not-just-compete?https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20131024/10311625002Tue, 4 Dec 2012 23:57:00 PSTJudge: Apple / HTC Patent Agreement Must Be Revealed (Except For Dollar Amount)Mike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121204/14072921224/judge-apple-htc-patent-agreement-must-be-revealed-except-dollar-amount.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121204/14072921224/judge-apple-htc-patent-agreement-must-be-revealed-except-dollar-amount.shtmlsettling their ongoing patent dispute, and the subsequent request by Samsung to see the details, which were being kept confidential. It wasn't so much the amount paid that interested Samsung, but which patents were included in the settlement. That's because, in the Apple/Samsung case, Apple has argued that it would never license some of its patents, and thus there should be an injunction banning the sale of certain Samsung devices. However, if those same patents are found in the HTC agreement... then Samsung can point out that, not only is Apple lying to the court, but that an injunction should be off the table. That's because the law suggests injunctions only make sense when there is "irreparable harm." And if you can just pay up the missed license fees, then it's clearly not "irreparable."

The court quickly granted Samsung's request and has now gone a step further, saying that the agreement itself should be made public, except for pricing and royalty terms. Bizarrely, it was actually Samsung who sought to have the information about what patents were included under seal -- such that it could see it, but the public could not. Either way, the judge has made it clear that the patents need to be made public as there's no compelling interest in keeping them secret.

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]]>so-we-shall-seehttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20121204/14072921224Mon, 19 Nov 2012 05:41:45 PSTSamsung Wants To See The Details Of Apple's HTC SettlementMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121117/01181921082/samsung-wants-to-see-details-apples-htc-settlement.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121117/01181921082/samsung-wants-to-see-details-apples-htc-settlement.shtmlsettling its patent fight with HTC -- though the terms were secret. It certainly sounded like it wasn't that much money, as HTC seemed to brush off the financial concerns. That appears to have caught the attention of Samsung's lawyers, who have now filed a motion asking the court to make Apple reveal the terms of its HTC settlement. Perhaps more important than the amount, Samsung wants to see if the deal includes all of Apple's patents, since there are some that Apple has been insisting it would never license as part of its argument as to why there needs to be an injunction blocking the sale of Samsung devices, rather than just monetary damages. It would undermine Apple's case if it then turned around and licensed those patents to HTC. As the linked article above notes, it would be surprising if HTC agreed to a deal that didn't include those patents. So the end result of the HTC deal may be that Apple just bargained away some of its ability to get injunctions against Samsung's devices.

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]]>just-curious...https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20121117/01181921082Mon, 12 Nov 2012 03:21:49 PSTHTC And Apple Settle Patent Dispute; Perhaps Tim Cook Realizes Patent Fights Are A WasteMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20121112/00494121010/htc-apple-settle-patent-dispute-perhaps-tim-cook-realizes-patent-fights-are-waste.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20121112/00494121010/htc-apple-settle-patent-dispute-perhaps-tim-cook-realizes-patent-fights-are-waste.shtmlagainst HTC, who quickly sued back. However, over the weekend, the two companies announced a settlement in which they're cross-licensing all of their patents to each other for a period of ten years. While the full details are secret, all of the indications are that HTC is paying Apple, but not a huge amount. HTC has said that it won't have "an adverse material impact" on its financials. While HTC remains a smaller player than Samsung, one hopes that this is actually a sign that Tim Cook has realized that Steve Jobs' infatuation with killing Android in court is not a productive strategy. This, of course, won't end many of the other patent fights around smartphones, but hopefully it shows that Apple has become less ridiculously "religious" about fighting in court, rather than focusing on the marketplace.

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]]>one-would-helphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20121112/00494121010Mon, 18 Jun 2012 23:59:00 PDTWould We Prefer HTC To Be Making Cool New Products? Or Just Getting More PatentsMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120615/15330119350/would-we-prefer-htc-to-be-making-cool-new-products-just-getting-more-patents.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120615/15330119350/would-we-prefer-htc-to-be-making-cool-new-products-just-getting-more-patents.shtmldecried the insanity of the patent thicket in the smartphone arena. In fact, some clueless analyst had written a note suggesting that HTC was at risk because it didn't have enough patents. The idea that quantity of patents matters is a really scary thought, but with the way the patent system works today, companies who have no desire to own patents are increasingly being pressured into doing so. Thus, HTC has been in the process of getting its hands on as many patents as possible, both by ramping up its own patent application filings, and by buying others patents (such as via the purchase of S3).

As someone who has used a bunch of HTC phones over the years, all of this is pretty depressing. I'd much rather the company focus on doing what it does best: building cool smartphones and devices. While our broken system may be forcing it to invest in patents (and patent litigation), wouldn't we all be better served by letting it (and others) focus on building cool products to compete in the marketplace? Or is that just too old fashioned an idea?

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]]>state-of-the-timeshttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120615/15330119350Tue, 22 May 2012 16:04:00 PDTITC Sides With Microsoft Over Patent; Motorola Android Phones Could Be BannedMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120518/15450818977/itc-sides-with-microsoft-over-patent-motorola-android-phones-could-be-banned.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120518/15450818977/itc-sides-with-microsoft-over-patent-motorola-android-phones-could-be-banned.shtmlblocking various HTC phones based on an ITC injunction due to some Apple patents, the ITC has also ruled in favor of Microsoft in a patent dispute with Motorola over Android phones. While there will be appeals and other such things, if this stands, and there is no settlement, Motorola's phones could also be blocked at the border by ITC injunction. Motorola, for its part, noted that Microsoft filed with the ITC over nine patents, and the ITC has only said that the phones violate one patent. Of course, since the ITC has only injunctive relief, it doesn't seem to much matter if it's one, two, six or nine -- the phone can be blocked. I am, once again, at a loss as to how this does any good. Keeping competing products from entering the market seems like the opposite of how you encourage innovation.

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]]>we-protect-patents-by-blocking-cool-products?https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120518/15450818977Wed, 16 May 2012 19:35:00 PDTNew HTC Phones Stopped At Customs Due To Apple Patent FightMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120515/17552418934/new-htc-phones-stopped-customs-due-to-apple-patent-fight.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120515/17552418934/new-htc-phones-stopped-customs-due-to-apple-patent-fight.shtmlwent after Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC in both the courts and using the infamous ITC loophole that gives the company two separate cracks and blocking competition using the same patents. The ITC ruled in Apple's favor late last year, issuing its customary injunction (the ITC can only issue injunctions blocking import, rather than any monetary award). HTC was given time to create a fix, but the injunction has apparently gone into effect, and it means that the newest HTC phones -- eagerly awaited by some -- are being held at the border by customs to make sure that allowing them into the country won't violate the ITC injunction. It's pretty sad that Apple doesn't appear to think that it can actually compete on the merits in the marketplace, but rather has to resort to this sort of protectionism. Similar to Apple's complaints against Samsung, I have to admit that all this has really done is increase my interest in both the HTC One X and the HTC Evo LTE. If a smartphone is so good that even Apple is scared to compete against it, well, that seems like a phone that might be worth having...

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]]>why-we-can't-have-cool-thingshttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120515/17552418934Tue, 8 May 2012 22:30:00 PDTSGI Back From The Dead (Again) And Suing Tons Of Companies For Patent InfringementMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120419/02113518553/sgi-back-dead-again-suing-tons-companies-patent-infringement.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120419/02113518553/sgi-back-dead-again-suing-tons-companies-patent-infringement.shtmlgoing patent troll. However, we thought we'd avoided that ignoble result when SGI sold most of its assets to Rackable for a mere $25 million three years ago. Silly us for assuming those patents would just go away.

While Rackable changed its name to Silicon Graphics International... the original company actually retained the patents, and renamed itself Graphics Properties Holdings... and over the last few years has been suing lots of companies for patent infringement. In the last year alone it has sued Apple, HTC, LG, RIM, Samsung, Sony, Acer, ASUS, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba, Vizio and Motorola Mobility.

As the link above notes, while some of GPH's patents are relatively early, it appears that lots of similar inventions predated key patents. However, the early date may make those patents look stronger, and give GPH much more leverage in getting companies to pay up -- or risk losing the ability to produce devices with nice graphics capabilities.

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]]>troll-troll-troll-trollhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120419/02113518553Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:36:12 PSTApple May Get To Remove Obvious Features From AndroidMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111220/03214517139/apple-may-get-to-remove-obvious-features-android.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111220/03214517139/apple-may-get-to-remove-obvious-features-android.shtmlonly Apple could possibly come have up with it. It's rulings like this that make anyone with a modicum of technology smarts shake their heads and wonder why we let clearly non-technical people make decisions like this. Patents are supposed to protect inventions that are non-obvious to those skilled in the space. If you put a 100 groups of five engineers in rooms, asking them to design various smartphone features and interfaces around things like this, I'd bet 99 would come up with a similar feature. It's just natural.

In the meantime, Apple's statements about the ruling are equally ridiculous, given Apple's history of copying others (including Android):

"We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

Copying an idea and building on it is not "stealing." And if Apple had to build its devices without building on the ideas of others, it wouldn't have very much today. This whole thing is a joke, and it's rulings like this that make engineers have even less respect for the patent system.

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]]>how does this promote the progresshttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111220/03214517139Tue, 6 Dec 2011 11:13:32 PSTPorn Giant Vivid to Take Legal Action Over HTC Vivid NameTimothy Geignerhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111118/23042216833/porn-giant-vivid-to-take-legal-action-over-htc-vivid-name.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111118/23042216833/porn-giant-vivid-to-take-legal-action-over-htc-vivid-name.shtml
Reader sinsi sent in the Tom's Guide story about Vivid, best known for pumping out pornography, sending a cease and desist notice to HTC, best known for pumping out phones. The issue, apparently, is that HTC's latest smart phone is called "The Vivid," a word fairly commonplace in the English language. Now, Vivid Entertainment has crossed paths with the technology sector in the past, when they sued the enigmatically-named PornoTube website (I wonder what they have to offer), or when their executives decided that it was Google and Yahoo's fault that kids were seeing the fine cinematography Vivid produces.

Still, I find myself asking the same questions about many of these Trademark suits lately: doesn't there have to be some kind of industry crossover for this to be valid? And at what point are moron-sturbators in a hurry going to confuse a smart phone for a the latest Superhero porno parody? Seriously...how does this happen? Did someone at Vivid overhear an HTC customer say, "This phone blows," and get confused?

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]]>there's-a-fap-for-thathttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111118/23042216833Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:01:15 PDTITC Not Impressed With Latest Smartphone Patent Thicket CasesMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20110419/11024613961/itc-not-impressed-with-latest-smartphone-patent-thicket-cases.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20110419/11024613961/itc-not-impressed-with-latest-smartphone-patent-thicket-cases.shtmland there's an entirely separate International Trade Commission (ITC) process, as well. Basically, the ITC can make rulings preventing importing infringing works, totally outside of the court system. And, of course, since so many things are made outside the US these days, this could create an effective injunction against those products in the entire US market. One of the key problems is that the ITC uses different standards than the court system to determine if such an injunction is an appropriate step.

With the massive patent thicket on smartphones, leading to a bunch of lawsuits, many are using both the court system and the ITC to try to force the other side to give in and just pay up. However, so far, it appears that the ITC is not playing along. We recently noted that the ITC indicated it was rejecting Nokia's claims that Apple's iPhone violated some of its patents, and now the ITC has indicated that it won't side with Apple in its claims against HTC and Nokia.

In other words: keep your silly patent pissing fight out of the ITC.

If the ITC keeps rejecting these attempts to stifle competition via the patent system, then hopefully companies will stop using this little loophole to get to extra bites of the (proverbial) apple.

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]]>patent-protectionismhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110419/11024613961Tue, 5 Apr 2011 15:08:04 PDTPhone That Can Search The Internet & Display Ads Patented; Everyone SuedMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20110401/13154513731/phone-that-can-search-internet-display-ads-patented-everyone-sued.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20110401/13154513731/phone-that-can-search-internet-display-ads-patented-everyone-sued.shtmlpatent thicket graphic. Another company that's not actually doing anything in the space is suing everyone who is. A company named H-W Technology apparently holds a patent (7,525,955) on an "Internet protocol (IP) phone with search and advertising capability" and has sued Apple, RIM, Google, Amazon, eBay, HTC, LG, Smasung, Microsoft, Nokia, Verizon and others for violating it. Because, you know, I'm sure no one possibly could have figured out how to put search and ads on a phone without this patent.

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]]>oh-come-onhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110401/13154513731Fri, 8 Oct 2010 09:34:05 PDTMeet The Patent Thicket: Who's Suing Who For Smartphone PatentsMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20101007/22591311328/meet-the-patent-thicket-who-s-suing-who-for-smartphone-patents.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20101007/22591311328/meet-the-patent-thicket-who-s-suing-who-for-smartphone-patents.shtmlwho was suing who in the smartphone space, following the news that Microsoft had sued Motorola. You can see that graphic here:

However, Joe Mullin quickly pointed out that the graphic was wrong and included a bunch of lawsuits that never happened. NY Times blogger Nick Bilton posted a correction to his story way back in March... so I'm unclear on why the two Guardian reporters were still using that as the basis of their own drawing.

Either way, with Motorola suing Apple for patent infringement, the already wrong graphic was now also out of date. So, I figured why not create my own, correcting the original errors and adding in the new information.

I ended up spending many hours on it, because once I started, I realized that to really show the state of the patent thicket, I couldn't just include the big name companies that were suing each other, because that's only a part of the story. What about all of the non-practicing entities (so-called "patent trolls"), who were suing lots of these companies for infringement as well? Doesn't that matter in understanding the thicket? Of course, there are lots of them, so I focused on the higher profile NPE lawsuits -- the ones involving multiple defendants -- and added them to the chart too (in green). And then, I added in a few other companies who actually make stuff but have been suing as well. Once you start, it's difficult to know where to stop. There are so many companies involved in so many lawsuits, some you just have to leave out. However, I believe the image below gives you at least some sort of picture of the lawsuit situation concerning smartphones. Some of these lawsuits have settled, but many are still ongoing.

Now, here's the crazy part: this is just lawsuits. I thought about showing licensing deals in this chart as well, but that would have killed my whole weekend (in fact, just as I was finishing up this post, I saw that Microsoft has just licensed 74 smartphone patents from Acacia). And then I thought about including companies like Intellectual Ventures which apparently are sitting on a bunch of other smartphone patents but haven't yet sued over them. However, I'd already wasted hours that could have been spent doing other, less brain-damaging work, and decided to leave it like this and move on.

Anyway, I'd say this does a damn good job demonstrating the concept of a patent thicket. It also explains how such thickets are hindering innovation. Anyone who wants to get into the smartphone business knows that they're facing lawsuits from a large number of the companies listed on the graphic.

Update: Someone just pointed out that Ars Technica apparently made their own graphic, which is really pretty.... but also relies on the same bad data that the NY Times used and corrected months ago.

Update 2: Apparently everyone had the same idea. The folks at Information is Beautiful made another version of the same chart... again including the incorrect information from the NY Times (though, at least they admit those lawsuits are about LCD price fixing, not patents).

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]]>now, with more trollhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101007/22591311328Fri, 9 Jul 2010 13:02:43 PDTNTP Keeps On Making The Case For Patent Reform As It Sues More CompaniesMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100709/11531110156.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100709/11531110156.shtmlNTP's patents almost certainly weren't valid, pressure from investors (and the judge in the case who refused to wait for the Patent Office's final rejection of the patents) resulted in RIM settling the case for $612.5 million. For RIM, it became something of a no brainer. Even though its legal position was strong, its investors were killing the company over the uncertainty (there were threats that the judge could issue an injunction shutting down the entire Blackberry network). Settling the case helped RIM's stock price jump up (increasing its market cap more than the cost of the settlement).

But, from a legal perspective, the lawsuit and the end result became the centerpiece of attention for efforts at patent reform. While I still think that the patent reform process in Congress has been misguided and the end result probably a lot more damaging than helpful, many of the politicians involved will point to the RIM-NTP case as evidence of the problems with the patent system. You might think, then, that NTP's investors might sit back and enjoy the spoils of the RIM settlement, but the company quickly went back out and sued all the major mobile operators in the US for violating its patents. However, judges in those other suits said (unlike the judge in the RIM case) that those trials should wait until the Patent Office has made a final decision on the validity of NTP's ridiculously overbroad patents.

However, NTP is not waiting around. It's now suing again. This time, rather than the mobile operators, it's going after device makers and platform vendors, suing Apple, Google, Microsoft, HTC, LG and Motorola. Basically, it appears that NTP has decided that if anyone does email on a phone, they have to pay NTP.

There might not be a better example of how incredibly screwed up the patent system is than this. NTP was involved in an attempt to do mobile email ages ago (and it wasn't the first actually... but NTP paid off some folks who had prior art). The idea itself wasn't new or all that innovative, and the timing was off, so NTP failed. In a functioning free market, that's a good thing. If a company can't execute, it should fail. Unfortunately, thanks to a ridiculously overbroad patent award, NTP has been able to live on as a bunch of lawyers suing any company that does figure out how to execute.

Perhaps the only good thing coming out of this is that it may help draw more attention to just how broken the patent system is.

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]]>milking-ithttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100709/11531110156Thu, 13 May 2010 20:42:50 PDTWired Takes On The Smartphone Patent Thicket And How It Stifles InnovationMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100513/0936579414.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100513/0936579414.shtmlpossible to build a smartphone without getting sued. As it continued to play out, it became clear that the smartphone market was a living example of the problems of a patent thicket -- where a new technology is so locked down by patents, as to slow down the pace of innovation in that market -- directly the opposite of the intended purpose of patents. Patent thickets have been demonstrated in many areas, with smartphones just being the most recent.

Underlying much of this litigation is a broken patent system that increasingly churns out weak patents, concomitantly strengthening the rights of those who hold them. Patents described in vague, abstract terms are the source of most infringement lawsuits as they provide more leeway for subjective interpretation. Patent examiners grant weak patents because administrative structures are overloaded and understaffed. And in an age of rapid product development, a market niche can be identified and a product manufactured, retailed and retired before a patent is even granted.

The article also discusses the fact that patent litigation storms like this one had been avoided in the past when big companies came up against each other through "gentlemen's agreements" not to sue each other. But that's been flipped around a lot through a combination of non-practicing entities getting big awards, and companies arguing over who's in the stronger position for such an agreement not to sue.

The end result, though? Money that could go towards productive investment, instead is being wasted on litigation. It's exactly the opposite of what the patent system is supposed to do.

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]]>dumbpatents-and-smartphoneshttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100513/0936579414Wed, 12 May 2010 16:57:37 PDTHTC Fires Back At Apple, Patent Nuclear Response LaunchedMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100512/1224389396.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100512/1224389396.shtmlback and forth and back and forth, it looks like the same thing may be happening now in the Apple-HTC dispute. The difference, of course, is that Apple initiated the lawsuit against HTC. But now HTC has responded in kind, claiming that Apple violates a bunch of its patents, while using the ITC loophole to get the iPhone barred from the US.

What we're really seeing is what happens when you get a patent thicket in a highly competitive, dynamic area. Suddenly, rather than focusing on competing in the marketplace, and continually outpacing each other by offering new innovations and benefits to consumers, companies start wasting millions upon millions of dollars trying to block competitors from doing the same thing. It leads to a massive net negative impact on society and consumer benefit. What a shame.

At the very least, it appears that HTC recognizes this:

"As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008, HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible."

Either way, it's yet another nuclear war in the patent world, taking money away from actual innovation. What a shame.

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]]>and-here-we-gohttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100512/1224389396Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:03:00 PDTMicrosoft Suggests Android Violates Its Patents... But Gets HTC To Buy A LicenseMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100428/0150309209.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100428/0150309209.shtmlMicrosoft plays. For years, it's spread FUD, claiming that open source operating systems, such as Linux, violate its patents -- though it has never detailed what patents or really sued anyone directly over those patents (though some have argued that it has done so with a couple patents tangentially). Now it appears that Microsoft is also claiming that Google's Android violates its patents. Of course, it's not doing so by going after Google. Instead, it's part of what came out in an announcement concerning Microsoft licensing certain patents to HTCspecifically to allow HTC to run Android.

Seems a bit strange, right? Why should Microsoft have any say in whether or not HTC can put Google's Android operating system on its phones. The whole thing seems even odder when you realize that HTC was, for a long time, one of the major makers of smartphones running Windows Mobile operating system. But, the complicating factor here might be Apple. Apple, of course, famously went on the patent offensive and sued HTC over its Android phones a couple months ago. So now, with Microsoft doing this deal, it seems to very publicly be entering the patent fight between Apple and Google, which for bizarre reasons is playing out with HTC as the pawn getting bounced around between them all.

Of course, Microsoft's press announcement on this particular deal is hilarious in how disingenuous it is:

The licensing agreement with HTC underscores the important role IP plays in ensuring a healthy and vibrant IT ecosystem.

Uh, no. It underscores the exact opposite. It underscores just how totally screwed up the smartphone market is because of the absolutely ridiculous patent thicket that's been built up around pretty much everything that goes into a smartphone. This deal doesn't show "the important role IP plays." It shows how a big company that has nothing whatsoever to do with a particular fight can suddenly throw its weight around on the topic in an attempt to cause confusion in the marketplace and potentially scare off competitors. It's the exact opposite of what the patent system is supposed to do.

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]]>say-what-now?https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100428/0150309209Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:06:00 PDTKlausner Adds Another Visual Voicemail Patent LawsuitCarlo Longinohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100426/1246319171.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100426/1246319171.shtmlsued HTC for infringing the patents on visual voicemail it says it holds, adding the phone maker to a long list of companies that have been attacked with the overly broad patent. Just as in the previous cases, it's not clear how this system actually helps anybody that's doing any actual innovation; the company with the patent, but which has never apparently done anything to actually bring it to market, gets to assess an innovation tax on companies doing the actual legwork. Meanwhile, the idea underlying the patent -- displaying voicemail info on a screen -- really isn't much more than a foreseeable progression of technology. So carry on, patent system, holding back innovation and misaligning incentives.

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]]>whoops,-missed-onehttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100426/1246319171Thu, 8 Apr 2010 02:30:00 PDTBunch Of Companies Sued Over Encryption PatentsMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100407/1004078912.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100407/1004078912.shtmla lawsuit against a ton of companies in East Texas (of course). This one, sent in by the Bored SysAdmin, involves a company called The Pacid Group, suing Asus, Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu, LG, Gigabyte, GBT, MSI, Motorola, Research in Motion, Nikon, Microsoft, Nintendo, HTC and Palm, claiming that they all violate two of its patents (5,963,646 and 6,049,612) on encryption. While it's often difficult to find any information on the no name companies who sue big companies for patent infringement, at least The Pacid Group has a website, where it clearly shows the company's only products: patents.

As we've seen in other similar lawsuits, the company appears to think that pretty much every bit of modern technology violates its patents. According to the lawsuit, all of the following types of products may violate these patents: laptops, mobile phones, printers, routers, digital cameras, Blu-ray disk players, gaming devices, wireless adapters and portable media players. Now, sure, you could make the claim that all of these companies found these patents from a company no one had heard of, and decided to "copy" the idea into their product. Or, the fact that this basic idea appears in so many places might lead you to conclude that the idea was the natural progression of the technology and obvious to those skilled in the art, and thus not deserving of a patent. But that would make sense.

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]]>but of coursehttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100407/1004078912Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:01:00 PSTPointless Stats: Number Of Patents Held By Apple, Google And HTCMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100308/2345048471.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100308/2345048471.shtmlApple has a lot more patents than Google or HTC. I have to say, this is one of the most meaningless bits of data out there, and it's getting way too much attention for its import. First of all, it looks like the report counted overall patents -- not even patents just in the spaces where these companies overlap. Second, the number of patents one holds is absolutely meaningless when it comes to actually being able to enforce the patents.

More troubling is the report's conclusion:

"While litigation appears to be an increasingly common cost of doing business," he concludes, "we view Apple's willingness to aggressively defend its patent portfolio favorably and welcome the defense of its IP."

Historically, this is generally not a good sign. It's usually a sign that a company has run into an innovation stumbling block, and doesn't think it can really continue to innovate at the pace the market is expecting, so it seeks to hold back competitors and pump up revenue through litigation, rather than innovation. A smart research report would note that breaking out the offensive patent lawsuits is generally a warning sign. But, then again, this is a research report that thinks the overall number of patents a tech company has is a meaningful metric.

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]]>that's-not-how-it-workshttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100308/2345048471Tue, 2 Mar 2010 13:44:00 PSTApple Goes Offensive On Patents: Sues HTCMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100302/1031458365.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100302/1031458365.shtmlimpossible for any smartphone maker to survive the patent gantlet, as there are so many patents held by so many different parties, and they all seem to have recently started suing each other. The latest, sent in by a whole bunch of you (though Phillip was first) is that Apple is suing HTC, again both in the courts and using the ITC loophole. What's interesting here is that, despite Apple playing up the fact that it had over 200 patents on the iPhone, for the most part, it hadn't gone on the offensive with them. The recent patent lawsuits that Apple has been involved in have all been on the defensive side -- which we thought was a smart move for Apple. The fact that it's now going on the offensive on patents is unfortunate. It's usually a sign that a company is worried that it can't keep up with the competition.

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]]>no-smartphones-at-allhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100302/1031458365Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:38:00 PSTHTC Sends Cease & Desist To Developer Who Made Similar Android WidgetsMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091218/0115307420.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091218/0115307420.shtmlsent a cease & desist nastygram to the developers of an Android widget that certainly had a similar look and feel to HTC's own Sense UI. Except, many people claim that this newer widget, from LevelUp Studios, was actually better. LevelUp apparently has no interest in fighting this, and are ditching the widget, but it seems that they could have a decent argument here. The bigger question, though, is why HTC is bothering? I'm actually a big HTC fan. My last two mobile phones have both been from HTC, and I had been expecting my next one to be from HTC as well. But this sort of bullying for no good reason makes me wonder why I'd want to support a company like that. Honestly, what was HTC "losing" by letting this widget be created? This seems like bullying just for the sake of bullying.

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]]>can't-compete?https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20091218/0115307420Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:21:00 PSTSmartphones Patented... Just About Everyone Sued 1 Minute After Patent IssuedMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080124/16382062.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080124/16382062.shtml"a mobile entertainment and communication device." Reading the patent, you realize it describes the quite common smartphone. It's a patent for a mobile phone with removable storage, an internet connection, a camera and the ability to download audio or video files. The patent holding firm who has the rights to this patent wasted no time at all. At 12:01am Tuesday morning, it filed three separate lawsuits against just about everyone you can think of, including Apple, Nokia, RIM, Sprint, AT&T, HP, Motorola, Helio, HTC, Sony Ericsson, UTStarcomm, Samsung and a bunch of others. Amusingly, the company actually first filed the lawsuits on Monday, but realized it was jumping the gun and pulled them, only to refile just past the stroke of midnight.

As the link above explains, the patent itself is based on a bunch of continuation filings, which are commonly used by patent holders who want broad patents to cover the latest technologies well after they've already come about in the market. It would seem like the concept itself, merely combining a bunch of things that people were already talking about, should never have been granted based on the Supreme Court's recent KSR ruling that merely combining existing concepts doesn't deserve a patent. Also, as noted in the comments to the link above, it would appear that there's a fair amount of prior art. In fact, Apple even sent over some prior art concerning the patent just before it was originally supposed to be issued last summer -- but somehow patent holder's lawyers talked their way around it. In the meantime, it looks like we've got yet another case of an overly broad and obvious patent being used against a huge number of firms. I'm sure that's exactly what Thomas Jefferson expected when he created our patent system.

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]]>wasting-no-timehttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080124/16382062Mon, 5 Nov 2007 09:57:05 PSTThe Google Phone... Everything You Expected And Less (For Now)Mike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071105/092815.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071105/092815.shtmlgPhone from Google, which has been rumored to be all different things over the past year. However, in the last couple of months, Google and its partners started leaking out a lot more info to tamp down expectations. They stated a few times that they were not building hardware, and then it came out that it was really just software that device manufacturers and mobile operators could offer that would be more "open," but would clearly promote various Google services. Not quite as exciting as some of the earlier rumors. Today Google finally put out the official announcement and there are no real surprises. It appears to be exactly what the lowered expectations set it to be: an operating system built on Linux, that is open source and free for anyone to use. That is, it's not a phone at all, but simply a platform for others to use.

Sprint and T-Mobile have signed up as partners agreeing to offer it -- but it isn't expected on handsets until the latter half of 2008. Despite some rumors that Verizon Wireless would put aside its dislike of Google and participate, so far it is staying on the sidelines. This isn't surprising both given Verizon Wireless' distaste for Google and its insistence on walled gardens over anything open. Also staying away is AT&T, which is hardly surprising at all, given its investment in the iPhone. The big handset partners are HTC and Motorola -- again, no surprise. Motorola has dabbled around with Linux phones before and knows that it needs some kind of differentiator after getting clobbered by others in the market. HTC is a huge producer of Windows Mobile phones but has long had a pretty rocky relationship with Microsoft, so seeing a way to potentially get out from under that yoke must be appealing.

All in all, this is a good step forward for the mobile industry -- offering a more open alternative with some big name backers. However, it's not a revolutionary leap forward just yet. It's an enabling move that hopefully will drive more innovation and potentially push operators towards a more open, more innovative world, but it's going to be an incremental process. Even though it clearly wasn't for everyone, the iPhone redefined what mobile phones could be overnight. Almost every company in the space has adjusted at least some part of their strategy to deal with the iPhone. The Google phone platform won't have that same overnight impact, and depending on how well it works, it may never have that kind of impact. There will be a number of powerful forces working against Google in this space -- and unlike Apple, since Google isn't controlling the initial rollout and everything around it, it may make things tougher to fight through the initial noise. However, if it can get through any initial troubles towards adoption, then its openness and Google's commitment to push it forward could lead to mobile devices and services that are a lot more powerful. So, while it's not the flashy overnight sensation that the iPhone was, it has the potential to have a much larger long-term impact, though done so in a more typical understated manner.

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]]>and-that's-it?https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20071105/092815Wed, 18 Jul 2007 06:48:05 PDTTaiwanese Contract Manufacturers Set Sights On Brand-Name PrizeCarlo Longinohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070717/174118.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070717/174118.shtmlestablishing their own consumer brands and using them to boost their product margins. Contract manufacturing is a low-margin, volume based business: for instance, one analyst says contract manufacturers of laptops have 3-5% margins; compare that to the 40% or more Apple enjoys on iPods. But growing the brands can be a tricky proposition, and not just because the companies are looking to enter new and unfamiliar consumer markets. The problem is that these companies are looking to become competitors to their biggest customers: for instance High Tech Computer, which makes mobile phones for a variety of companies, is building up its HTC consumer brand, and competing with clients like HP and Palm in the process. Some are trying to get around this by splitting off their consumer operations from their contract-manufacturing businesses, such as Acer did successfully several years ago. Still, that's not the only obstacle. Getting the consumer marketing right remains a big issue -- particularly when the new consumer brands are competing against companies for which marketing, not manufacturing, is a specialty.